Before I go on with this series, I feel I should take a step back and discuss the topic of lifestyle choices. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines lifestyle as “the typical way of life of an individual, group, or culture.” According to Wikipedia, this includes “interests, opinions, behaviors, and behavioral orientations,” and is constrained by things… Continue reading The Self-Sufficient Writer: Lifestyle Choices
Tag: Life Decisions
The Self-Sufficient Writer: First Steps Toward Food Storage
For various reasons, after a year I decided to come home from overseas and move back to Utah. A lot had changed in that year, and my books were starting to earn enough that I could cover all my publishing expenses and pay myself a small salary. It wasn’t much, but the cost of living… Continue reading The Self-Sufficient Writer: First Steps Toward Food Storage
The Self-Sufficient Writer: What I Learned by Leaving the Country
When I left the United States in 2012, I didn’t have self-reliance in mind. The plan was to break out of the cycle of poverty I’d been living in by starting a career teaching English overseas, bouncing around the world as a global nomad. If I landed a good paying ESL job somewhere like the… Continue reading The Self-Sufficient Writer: What I Learned by Leaving the Country
The Self-Sufficient Writer: How I Got Started
One of the best things my father ever did for me was tell me that when I graduated from college, I was on my own. No more rent money or financial support from my parents—I had to become financially independent, and I had to do it soon. I had a rather unusual college experience. I… Continue reading The Self-Sufficient Writer: How I Got Started
The Self-Sufficient Writer: Introduction
Before I graduated from college five years ago, I decided that I was going to pursue writing as a full-time career. That was my dream: to make a living telling stories that I love. It’s been a crazy ride so far, and I don’t doubt that it’s only going to get crazier. For the better… Continue reading The Self-Sufficient Writer: Introduction
Blogging vs. journal writing
So as you may have noticed, I generally blog a lot less nowadays than I did just a couple of years ago. That doesn’t mean I don’t blog at all, or that I don’t value keeping a blog, but it’s just not something I do as frequently as I used to. I’ve been wondering why… Continue reading Blogging vs. journal writing
Upcoming plans for 2015
I think my favorite time of the year is the week between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s a time for reflection, of looking at what you accomplished in the previous year and setting resolutions for the next one. In that spirit, here are some of the writing and publishing things I’d like to accomplish in… Continue reading Upcoming plans for 2015
The week from hell
That might be a bit of an overstatement, but this week is shaping up to be really crazy stressful. First, I’ve got to move out of my current apartment. I think I’ve got a place lined up to move to, when makes things a lot less stressful than they were last week, but I’ve still… Continue reading The week from hell
Why I quit Facebook
Last month, I made the decision to quit Facebook. Permanently. As in, the Facebook account that I created eight years ago as a college freshman no longer exists, unless Facebook continues to store and monetize data from its ex-users long after they’ve quit the service. Which wouldn’t surprise me at all, since Facebook is in… Continue reading Why I quit Facebook
Q is for Quitting the Day Job (or never having one to begin with)
Writing is one of those gigs where everyone expects you to have a day job, since common wisdom says that writers don’t make money. In traditional publishing, that may be generally true, but self-publishing is an entirely different game. It isn’t necessarily easy to make a living as an indie writer, but it is possible–much… Continue reading Q is for Quitting the Day Job (or never having one to begin with)